Police smash global gang behind 500,000 Aussie credit card thefts

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POLICE have busted an international organised crime gang which allegedly committed the biggest theft of credit card data in Australia's history.

Computer hackers from a Romanian syndicate got access to 100 small retail outlets where the credit card details of up to 500,000 Australians were stored, The Herald Sun reports.

Investigators have not been able to establish how many of those card details were stolen from the Australian businesses, but about 30,000 of them have already been used to illegally buy goods worth more than $30 million.

A joint Australian Federal Police and Romanian National Police probe this week led to the detention of 16 gang members in Romania.

The joint operation has foiled what had the potential to be a $750 million fraud - with a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics survey showing the average fraud loss per stolen credit card is $1500.